Three candidates nominated for St. Ann North Eastern by-election

 

Three candidates will contest the September 30 by-election in St. Ann North Eastern after they were duly nominated on Wednesday.

 

They are David Anderson, an independent, Matthew Samuda of the Jamaica Labour Party and Chase Neil for the United Independents' Congress.

 

The opposition People's National Party made good on its pronouncement that it would not be participating in the by-election.

 

The Electoral Office of Jamaica has said it will now advance preparations for the upcoming poll. 

 

"Now that we have the nominees, we can now begin to prepare our ballots, begin to look at the logistics that needs to be done. We will fine-tune our polling stations - we have identified them already, 146 polling stations - and look at any other things that need to be done. So we are fairly comfortable with where we are now in terms of our preparation. We'll be ready for September 30th," Director of Elections Glasspole Brown declared while speaking with reporter Dwayne Anderson. 

 

 

Meanwhile, the United Independents' Congress said it will be contesting the by-election in St. Ann North Eastern based on its belief that the people of the constituency should not be used as a "pawn in some political game". 

 

While conceding that the party's candidate Chase Neil will have a tough task emerging victorious at the end of the September 30 by-election, UIC president and founder Joseph Patterson said the party had to take its shot to give the people the representation they deserve. 

 

"We want to take it very seriously and give the people of North East St. Ann the opportunity to select somebody and a party other than the historic governing parties, given that they are not deserving of the seat or even being in Parliament for that matter," he said.